Blue Origin readies New Glenn

Blue Origin has rolled its New Glenn rocket to the pad at Cape Canaveral as it lines up a third flight attempt this week. (floridatoday.com) The company raised the vehicle upright at Launch Complex 36, with local coverage pointing to a possible launch window as soon as Friday, April 17. (orlandosentinel.com) The payload for the third mission is AST SpaceMobile’s “BlueBird 7” satellite, part of a plan to beam cellular service from space to ordinary phones. (spaceflightnow.com) New Glenn is Blue Origin’s heavy-lift launcher: a two-stage rocket with a reusable first stage meant to fly “a minimum of 25 flights,” and a seven-meter-wide payload fairing for large spacecraft. (blueorigin.com) Blue Origin first reached orbit with New Glenn on January 16, 2025, but lost the booster during descent after stage separation, according to the company’s NG-1 mission write-up. (blueorigin.com) On its second mission, New Glenn launched NASA’s Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) Mars spacecraft and landed the reusable first stage on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean. (blueorigin.com) That flight history matters for the next step Blue Origin has been promising: higher launch cadence, booster reuse, and regular commercial missions from Florida’s Space Coast. (nasaspaceflight.com) In parallel, Blue Origin has been promoting “Blue Alchemist,” a system designed to turn lunar regolith—the Moon’s dusty crushed rock—into useful materials, including oxygen. (blueorigin.com) A Times of India report this week described Blue Origin extracting oxygen from “Moon-like soil” using molten regolith electrolysis, a technique that uses extreme heat and electricity to free oxygen bound in minerals. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com) Blue Origin has said its regolith-to-oxygen work is aimed at breathable oxygen and “propellant-grade oxygen” for refueling, with an autonomous demonstration in a simulated lunar environment targeted for 2026. (blueorigin.com) For now, the near-term test is simpler: get New Glenn off the pad again, put BlueBird 7 in orbit, and show the rocket can fly on something closer to a commercial rhythm. (floridatoday.com)